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Re: Queen Identification

Buckfasts are bred under fairly strict conditions by licensed breeders in the UK, Germany, and Canada. If you didn't order it from them, it's unlikely you have a pure one. You could have a queen with some or even a lot of their genetic lineage, though.

I had an email with the contacts for the breeding grounds at Dartmoor, and several of the Canadian Buckfast breeders, but Microsoft saw fit to update my system for me and I lost all my old emails. You could try to Google search Buckfast breeders and get them to look at the photo. These folks will have the best call on your question. The "Buckfast" bees I've dealt with turned out to be open-mated from Buckfast stock years before, and displayed traits a bit closer to feral AMM. I'm getting to the point that I'd like to try some actual Buckfast stock from the breeders.

I just googled Buckfast bees, and one of the breeders in Canada is Ferguson Apiaries, another here in the US is Weaver Apiaries.

Re: Queen Identification

You can use the "Insert Image" button on the message toolbar to display the JPG you provided a link to. The button is the 3rd from the right. Once you have clicked it, choose the tab called "from URL", paste the link to the JPG, and UN-click the checkbox. And the result is this:

Re: Queen Identification

I am not even sure that it is a queen. I think it is just a different color worker. I sometimes see very dark workers mixed in my hives. Maybe "mutt" drones bred the original queen and she throws a dark worker now and then?

Again, I am not even sure she is a queen...wish you had a different angle picture....several of the workers in the picture actually have a longer abdomen that she does.

Re: Queen Identification

If you look at the black bee's thorax it is the same size as other worker bees next to
her. The queen bee has bigger thorax and her abdomen is a lot longer extending pass
both wings. I don't see the longer body but a lot shorter by the wings.
Any queen bee will have workers surrounding her in an almost circle like where ever she
goes. I have often see darker worker bees but she's not the queen. Queen has bigger
and longer body.

Re: Queen Identification

I am looking on a much larger, brighter screen today. I do not see any queens in the original picture on the link. If you saw her laying eggs, she is very likely an intergrade worker-queen, the result of an emergency effort, probably made from a larva that was too old - raised on "worker jelly" for a while before suddenly being switched back to royal jelly.

Beepro - you need a macro lens to take photos that close, but the 3rd and 4th photos show a beautiful queen!